Ruptured Appendix
This book is a literary example of what could be best described as one of my research projects having a ‘ruptured appendix’. What started out as a reference in the appendix of one book developed into a separate book rather than a mere appendix. The research and stories grew in size until it simply was unwieldy as a postscript section. Often this persistent search for information is connected with my desire to find humor. Looking for something humorous in a subject matter sometimes adds a valuable sense of randomness to my research endeavours. I wander off the main path of any conventional lines of research simply to find something funny for a cartoon about the subject. On occasion, I open a regular Pandora’s box of untapped or overlooked information.

How the Book Grew
In the following I will describe how this happens: Originally this book started out as some interesting bonus stories included in the book “Self-Preservation on the High Seas: A Cultural Redressing”. There was a cartoon in the outtake section of the book about the idea of a Green Valentine’s Day, and I thought I would find a ship story to accompany it. There were a number of ships over the years with the name Valentine. I selected two Valentine ships with interesting stories. As I developed the stories, I noticed a theme similar to another book of mine “Judith Milbanks and the Justice of the Sea” (which I have included in this book). The theme I noticed was the vilification of the French mariners by the British newspapers. I thought I would gather these stories together and present them as a sample of the biased treatment the French mariners received in the English press. Although the countries were not officially at war after the early 19th century, old animosities lingered for a long time. As I gathered these stories, it reminded me of the article about the Pacquet ship that I found a long time ago and set aside as an interesting tale to develop someday. I decided to include the Pacquet tale to help illustrate the French bias in the other accompanying stories.

Also Included
As well, references in the stories lead me to explore the history of Jersey Island and this resulted in adding the Carmagnole story to the book . Within the Carmagnole story there was an interesting early reference to the use of the word cabotage so I added this to the book as well. One tangent find seemed to lead to another and so it went. Hopefully this sheds some light on the unconventional way this collection of stories came together.

Purchase Souvenirs
Nice water bottles, travel mugs, tote bags and t-shirts available with art from this book
Visit Cafepress...